IDF Intelligence Chief: Hizbullah Can Take Over Lebanon in a Day

Hizbullah can take over Lebanon “in a matter of hours,” outgoing IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told a Knesset committee Tuesday.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 11/2/2010, 6:38 PM / Last Update: 11/2/2010, 6:57 PM

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Hizbullah can take over Lebanon “in a matter of hours,” outgoing IDF military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Tuesday.

An increasing number of reports in the past several weeks have indicated that Hizbullah, whose terrorist army has partially merged with the Lebanese army, is planning a political coup.

"If it wanted to, Hizbullah could take over Lebanon in a matter of hours,” Yadlin told the committee, adding that “this is not very likely but there is no military force that can stand up to Hizbullah in Lebanon."

He implicated Russia in helping Syria give Hizbullah “all of the most advanced weapon systems in Syria’s possession” and explained that “everything that falls off of the production line in Russia ends up in Syria."

Russia is supplying the Syrian regime with advanced anti-aircraft systems that could reduce Israeli military capability back “to their status” in the 1970s, he warned. Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur in 1973, touching off a prolonged and deadly war that initially left the country’s survival in danger.

"With the S-300, we are talking about relatively cheap missiles - but no less lethal," Yadlin stated in his final appearance before the committee.

Yadlin charged that Syrian is playing both sides of the political street – talking about peace with Israel while strengthening the axis with Hizbullah and Iran.

Concerning Iran’s nuclear program, Yadlin told the committee that Iran already has enough nuclear material to manufacture a bomb and soon “will have enough to make two bombs."

While Israel is prepared for all scenarios, the next war, if it materializes, “will be much bigger, much wider in scope, and with many more casualties” than in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.